Bradford driver left own children injured at scene of crash

A father-of-ten who fled the scene of a serious road accident in which two of his own children were injured has been jailed for more than four years.

Drug addict Umbar Ali, 40, who has ten children by two women, abandoned the wreckage of his Vauxhall Zafira after he crashed at high speed into the side of an Alfa Romeo which ended up embedded in a tree.

At the time of collision in March last year Ali’s wife Shagufta was a front seat passenger in the Zafira and his girlfriend Melissa Cox and three of his children were in the rear of the vehicle.

The crash in the Valley Road area of Bradford left two of his children injured as well as badly injuring the driver of the Alfa Imran Butt and his wife.

Ali, of Acre Lane, Eccleshill, Bradford, was estimated to have been driving at 70mph along Queen’s Road in Manningham before crashing into the Alfa Romeo. Ali’s three-year-old daughter almost had her left ear severed in the collision and her two-year-old sister fractured her leg and thigh.

Prosecutor Ken Green told Judge David Hatton QC yesterday that all those injured in the crash had made a full recovery apart from Mr Butt, who was still awaiting further surgery on his injured ankle which had to be pinned after the accident.

Ali, who was found guilty by a jury earlier this week, had pleaded not guilty to four charges of causing serious injury by dangerous driving and claimed that he had been forced to drive dangerously because he was being chased “bumper to bumper” by a white Audi due to a debt he owed a drug dealer.

He told the jury he feared for himself and his family, but independent witnesses did not mention the Audi.

Jailing Ali for four years for the driving offences Judge Hatton said he had engaged in an appalling and selfish piece of driving which had involved great speed and overtaking on the wrong side of the road.

The judge said Ali didn’t even have the courage or decency to remain at the scene of the crash.

“You fled into the night,” said the judge. “You went to ground leaving your victims in their smouldering vehicles.”

Barrister Abigail Langford, for Ali, said his life had been blighted by his long-standing drug use and she suggested that despite the public perception of the case he did feel very sorry and remorseful about what happened.

She indicated that her client had not seen any of his children since the crash last year.

Ali was sentenced to four years in jail for the driving offences with an additional nine months in prison for house burglary and theft. He was also banned from driving for two years and ordered to take an extended driving test.

Sergeant Rick Lyon of the Western Area Roads Policing Unit, described Ali as “heartless” and said: “[He] not only caused the crash with his dangerous driving, he then fled the scene leaving a number of people with serious injuries - which included members of his own family.”